If you have fifteen minutes, you can be earning more interest on your savings account. Many Bargaineering.com readers are familiar with high yield savings accounts, so for the seasoned veterans you won’t get much out of this post (maybe this one on reward checking accounts is new to you?). In recent weeks, there’s been a huge influx of new readership and I wanted to take the time to introduce a concept that has been all the rage in personal finance – high yield savings accounts.

This post is part of the Bargaineering Annual Financial Review week series where we take a closer look at the four major facets of personal finance and see if we can do better. This post is part of day one – getting the most out of banking relationships.

If you want to earn the most on your liquid savings account and get the highest interest rates, it will be difficult for you to find a brick and mortar bank able to match the rates at online banks. The overhead costs of leasing office space for a branch, paying tellers and managers, and all the other costs associated with a bank will cut into the interest rate you get for your savings. Take a look at your bank’s savings account interest rate… is it even over half a percent?

Bank of America’s regular savings account pays a meager interest rate of 0.10% APY! Get dinged with one fee and you’re in the hole just for having the account.

They aren’t without a little bit of hassle though, you can read my thoughts on whether online banks are worth it to find out more. I think they are worth it because you get a much higher interest rate but that’s for each person to decide on their own.

Forget savings accounts at a brick and mortar banks, they’re ripping you off.

(if you’re wondering why comments are turned off, it’s because I’m pulling data from a database in a way that makes comments potentially dangerous… if you’re curious why, please email me and I can explain in greater detail)

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